Telecom service providers are moving to a model that relies on a generic, industry-standard hardware infrastructure with the network functions themselves being implemented entirely in software. Consequently, the telecom industry is transitioning to network function virtualization (NFV). NFV provides new ways of structuring communications networks at a lower cost and with greater capability in network services. Virtualization allows for efficient sharing of physical resources.
Currently, most virtual implementations optimize speed of deployment. This can result in less than optimal usage of resources. Over time the gap between the optimal deployment and the actual deployment will grow unless corrective actions are taken. Consequently, in support of speed of delivery and a multi-sourced demand the physical and logical deployment of virtual network function (VNF) functionality and usage of all virtual resources will become non-optimized.